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“Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” The Coen brothers’ A Serious Man opens with this quote from Rashi, the first of many times that the central idea is stated in the film and, yet, A Serious Man remains one of their most perplexing films to grasp. It’s been called a retelling of the Book of Job, misery porn, and brilliant. Perhaps, seeking an interpretation is missing the point. It could very well be that we are not supposed to know beyond what is told to us by the film. What is obvious is that it is a fascinating work, darkly funny, and alluringly enigmatic.
The opening, which relates to the bulk of the film only by theme, is in itself a golden nugget of filmmaking. Set almost sixty years before in a snowy Polish village, it is told in the style of an old village folktale. At once, it sets the tone of the film which is in the great Coen tradition of turning tragic misfortune into dark humor. It also presents another framing of the theme. Misfortunes happen. The Coens excel at unexpected reactions that shift the mood and this prologue offers some of their best examples. A husband returns to the cottage and tells his wife that along the way he encountered a kindly villager who helped him fix his carriage. In horror, his wife replies that the villager in question has been dead three years and they have been cursed with the presence of a dybbuk. As tension builds and a chill runs down our spine, the husband reacts with…laughter. He doesn’t believe in such things. But fear comes rushing back when we hear a knock on their door…
When the film flash forwards to the main story set in 1967, the film’s basis on ancient legend becomes the mold of the entire film. What Job endured in the Old Testament becomes now the ordeal of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a mild-mannered physics teacher.
Stuhlbarg was a great casting choice. If Woody Allen’s persona turned a shade darker, he would be much like Stuhlbarg’s embodiment of Larry Gopnik: bespectacled, comically awkward, controlled reactions, although teetering on the neurotic side. It’s fun just watching Larry talk his way out of situations, as when one of his students offers him a bribe to pass the class. What’s interesting in this scene is that despite Larry’s intellect and firmness, the student still has control of the situation.
The Coen brothers understand that one of the fundamental keys of comedy is turning what would be sad, upsetting, or annoying in real-life into a laugh. A Serious Man demonstrates this gift while balancing it with unease. Because they are so ironic, every bump that befalls upon poor Larry is a joke, but the consequences are just a little too real to be entirely laughed off.
Things are looking very bad for Larry. His wife (Sari Wagner Lennick), a selfish and inconsiderate woman drops the news on him that she is leaving him for Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), a family friend, who is even more despicable; pretending to be a friend to Larry while patronizing the pathetic little man. Every one, including the student trying desperately to pass and his own kids, can manipulate Larry.
The thing about Larry is that he doesn’t need any of these antagonists to cooperate. On his own he is smart, sincere, and professional. He comes across as really the most likeable character in the film, but even here we shouldn’t pass easy labels. Stuhlbarg said that in some ways Larry isn’t such a great guy. He’s neglected his family, causing their indifference to him. The Coens populate their films with characters we don’t know quite how to take. Here, the lines are more clearly drawn. Larry is nicer than most of their protagonists and the antagonists more off-putting as a result.
But whether or not people deserve their fate is a question that the Coen brothers have long considered irrelevant. They played with the futility of such a question dramatically in No Country for Old Men. A Serious Man is satirical but their conclusions are the same. In life we often get what we don’t deserve and don’t get what we do deserve. When Larry does seem to be getting what he deserves (a tenured position), bad news is just around the corner, while his student seemingly gets away with a passing grade that he didn’t earn.
“I haven’t done anything,” Larry yells at a representative of a record company billing him for albums he didn’t order. But what Larry doesn’t get yet is that in life we don’t have to do anything necessarily for unfortunate things to happen.
A Serious Man is a distinctly Jewish film both culturally and philosophically, peppered with statements conveying the theme, (e.g. “It’s not always easy to decipher what God is trying to tell you.”) Its central mystery is why things happen to Larry. There is no answer. Things just happen and, to quote the rabbi in the film, “We can’t know everything but helping others can’t hurt.” A Serious Man is a movie about things happening, Anton Chigurh’s idea of a joke.

Title: A Serious Man
Year: 2009
Country: USA, UK, France
Language: English, Yiddish, Hebrew
Genre: Drama
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Writers: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast:
Michael Stuhlbarg
Richard Kind
Fred Melamed
Sari Lennick
Aaron Wolff
Jessica McManus
Alan Mandell
Ari Hoptman
Amy Landecker
Simon Helberg
Adam Arkin
Fyvush Finkel
George Wyner
Michael Tezla
David Kang
Rating: 7/10

Firstly, I guess one thing Coen brothers want to tell us from A SERIOUS MAN is that science and religious are both sides of a coin, the notorious cat proves the uncertainty of the universe meanwhile the Jewish rabbi advises our protagonist to accepting the uncertainty without questioning God as he is not responsible for giving us all the answers.

A SERIOUS MAN shows that Coen brothers have perfected their masterly skill in black comedy with more ruthless ambitions, from the hideous prologue, the Jewish vignette successfully gave me a creepily chilling feeling which I took as a portentous signal that maybe the film would never be as funny as I had thought (the fact is that it is categorized in COMEDY genre).

I must admit that for me this film creates many barricades in front as I know nothing about Jewish religion, which undermined the certain pleasure and transformed it into an unsatisfied feeling as that I was intermitted by confusion and even boredom frequently, maybe I shall not blame it on Coen brothers, as this mini-budget indie feature is merely a retrospective personal work (after NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and BURN AFTER READING’s success and all-star cast).

The cast consists of mainly unheard actors (as least for me), Michael Stuhlbarg embraces his first (but also his last) straw as a leading role in an important film with a vivid devotion, although almost of the time he looks like a funny version of Joaquin Phoenix. Surprised to see Simon Helberg (the Jewish nerd Howard in THE BIG BANG THEORY series) has a small cameo here, ironically he could be the biggest star among the cast.

I have to mention the ending, has the same effect as the frog rain in MAGNOLIA (1999) or the earthquake in SHORT CUTS (1993), the upcoming tornado is truly making its finishing point potently and meaningfully, which makes me have to give a 7/10 instead of 6/10.

This film was nominated as BEST PICTURE in Oscar this year, thanks for the double-sized quota and a further testimony of Steve Martin telling Christopher Waltz in the Oscar award ceremony this year earlier that authentically there are many Jews in Hollywood, even more than we thought.

P.S. as A SERIOUS MAN could easily manage inside the top 10 list last year, there is no reason their more ambitious new version of TRUE GRIT (1969), will miss its spot inside this year’s for Oscar next year. Let’s wait patiently and see.

A Serious Man est un film particulier dans la filmographie des frères Coen. Il ne fait pas date par son originalité mais par le soin tout particulier qu’ils ont pris à mettre en scène cette allégorie appliquée d’un mythe fondateur. Le long-métrage s’ouvre sur une courte fable, interprétée en yiddish, à la narration séparée du film à proprement dit. Dans la pensée et dans l’imaginaire cependant, il y a un curieux lien qui se forme entre cette saynète et la descente aux enfers vécue par le personnage principal, Larry Gopnik.
Nous sommes au sein d’une communauté juive, dans les années 50, et Larry s’apprête à vivre une déstructuration en règle de toutes ses certitudes. Il est dit que celles-ci sont le luxe des spectateurs, et Larry Gopnik (déconcertant Michael Stuhlbarg) va devenir l’acteur de l’explosion en plein vol de sa propre vie. Introduite avec subtilité par la composition de Carter Burwell (des nappes de guitare et de piano qui dissonent et instiguent efficacement le malaise), la fission des conventions suit celle des contingences, le talent de la mise en scène des frères Coen la portant à un paroxysme remarquable.

C’est d’abord par la construction des personnages secondaires que celui de Larry est défini : son frère Arthur ne peut désengorger le kyste logé dans sa nuque, son voisin antipathique préfigure la guerre du Viêtnam, sa femme demande le divorce, un élève sud-coréen essaie de le corrompre, son fils fait l’expérience de la marijuana en écoutant Jefferson Airplane… A Serious Man est avant tout une très grande comédie à l’humour pince sans rire et aux dialogues toujours à contre pied. Les situations les plus cocasses et les plus déroutantes apparaissent comme des dérèglements à peine appuyés d’un ordre social familier. Recréant avec brio une époque aujourd’hui révolue, le scénario des frères Coen contredit peu à peu la nostalgie que l’on aurait d’abord pu détecter.

Sans jugement catégorique, les frères Coen plongent dans une origine juive qu’ils dissèquent avec un recul sidérant. C’est de l’homme sérieux du titre dont il est véritablement question, et de destin aussi quelque part. Redonnant vie à des pans entiers de certitudes religieuses, le film ne s’oppose jamais autrement que par les coups du sort que subit Larry. C’est en effet ce que l’on catalogue un peu hâtivement sous le terme d’humour juif’ et qui est plutôt ici un recul particulier sur les situations vécues, comme si tout était donné à voir sous un angle légèrement oblique. C’est d’ailleurs le chemin le plus court entre un point A et un point B : la norme sociale dans laquelle vit Larry au début et la catastrophe naturelle qu’il vivra à la fin.

La construction du film est sa réussite, l’alternance entre ces problèmes qui s’amoncellent petit à petit et une routine qui se retrouve dans la succession des séquences (la maison, l’école, les visites chez le rabbin ou l’avocat). On en vient d’ailleurs vite à plaindre Larry et à attendre cette fameuse goutte d’eau qui viendra faire déborder un vase qui paraît rapidement trop plein. Les frères Coen auraient d’ailleurs tout aussi bien pu monter la trajectoire que prend la vie de Larry avec celle d’une voiture en pleine lancée vers un mur tant la direction est vite transparente. C’est alors qu’avec beaucoup d’intelligence ils établissent des parallèles entre les situations vécues par Larry d’une part et les personnages secondaires d’autre part (voire le fameux accident vers la moitié du film).

Enfin c’est en prenant racine et acte dans une religion qu’ils semblent avoir minutieusement étudiés que le propos du film trouve son ampleur et sa portée : sans prédire, ils laissent les actes parler d’eux-mêmes et leurs conséquences entraîner les suivants. Le plan final sert donc de mise en perspective, a posteriori, d’un bout de course tragique, comme de coutume.

http://www.findeseance.com

In “A Serious Man”, college professor; Larry Gopnik thinks everything in his life is going fine, when all of a sudden his world starts falling apart. His wife wants a divorce, he has to deal with his obviously anti-Semitic neighbor (who I believe is more of a symbol that represents intolerance for all things NOT 100% American during the 1960’s), he’s kicked out of his house, one of his failing students tries to bribe and/or frame him after receiving a failing grade, his brother has no place to stay, all while his son’s bar mitzvah is right around the corner. Just like almost all of the other Coen movies, there’s plenty of symbolism and an open ending. In A Serious Man’s case, the open end in sight doesn’t look all that good. Aside from the out of nowhere, unexpected release of this film, it got a lot of attention, because weren’t any “stars” in it. Don’t let the cast of pretty much “unknowns”, with the exceptions of Adam Arkin (where the hell has he been?) and two cameo’s from Michael Lerner & Steven Park, sway you from checking this film out. All the actors are great, unlike a lot of the ”unknowns” & non professionals in recent movies like; “Bubble”, “Paranoid Park” or “Elephant” (which are all good movies, but sometimes non-professional actors can be kinda distracting with their dry/un-polished delivery). Also, remember this is a Coen brother’s movie, so I’m sure it’ll be nominated for a million awards and get a bunch of over hyped acclaim just because… I mean, what coen brothers movie hasn’t? Plus, ANYTHING that follows up “Burn After Reading” would almost look like a masterpiece. But rest assured, with all that stuff aside, this movie is still really good. Fans of “Barton Fink” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There” will enjoy this especially.

Le cinéma des fréres Cohen hésite toujours entre l’absurde et le tragique et cet opus sublime ces deux aspects. Cela explique certainement son incontestable réussite. Outre l’inventivité visuelle (qui ici explose encore plus que d’habitude pour filmer le quotidien des années 60), Serious Man conjugue un humour cocasse et cynique en diable, forcément réjouissant. Sur un thème assez personnel, la déliquescence d’une famille juive dans les années 60, les frères Cohen réussissent un film libre, personnel et émouvant tout en étant d’une grande qualité formelle et esthétique. Jubilatoire.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, it’s shot incredibly well and the Coen Brother’s continue to grow as directors. The Antisemitic nature of the film was interesting and certainly an odd way to approach the topics, especially since it has almost all Jewish characters. Something you just don’t see very often. I think the beginning was my absolute favorite part, it was extremely unsettling and well done. I thought some of the subplots were a little strange and unnecessary. I think it’s a movie that I’ll probably never see again, not because it was bad, but because it just didn’t deliver anything all that interesting or memorable. Even though it was a black comedy, too many characters were one noted and flat out annoying.

Selepas kemenangan mereka di ajang The 81st Annual Academy Awards lewat film No Country for Old Men, yang berhasil memberikan mereka 4 buah piala Oscar, termasuk untuk kategori Best Picture dan Best Director, Joel David Coen dan Ethan Jesse Coen, yang dikenal sebagai Coen Brothers, sempat merilis film komedi komersial Burn After Reading di tahun 2008, yang cukup sukses selama masa peredarannya.

Selepas Burn After Reading, Coen Brothers kembali merilis A Serious Man. Film black comedy yang tampil tanpa adanya satu pun nama-nama aktor atau aktris besar Hollywood ini sepertinya menandakan kembalinya Coen Brothers ke wilayah film-film yang jauh dari kesan sebagai sebuah film komersil.

A Serious Man dibuka dengan sebuah adegan prolog komedi yang bersetting di abad ke-19, dengan kedua pemerannya tampil dengan bahasa Yahudi, yang menceritakan pasangan suami istri yang kedatangan seorang tamu, yang ternyata merupakan saudara jauh mereka yang telah meninggal tiga tahun lalu. Para penonton akan dibuat tertawa sekaligus terheran-heran dengan prolog singkat ini karena setting dan kisah yang akan ditampilkan berikutnya sama sekali berbeda dan tidak behubungan dengan prolog tersebut, kecuali, tentu saja, jika Anda menganggap prolog tersebut sebagai sebuah perkenalan bahwa film ini akan ditampilkan dalam sebuah sudut pandang seorang pria Yahudi dan kehidupan keluarga dan sekitarnya yang masih kuat dipengaruhi oleh kebudayaan tersebut.

Penonton kemudian akan dikenalkan pada Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), seorang pria Yahudi yang tinggal di daerah Minneapolis, Minnesota di tahun 1967. Larry adalah seorang profesor yang tinggal dengan keluarganya yang masih memegang kultur Yahudi mereka dengan sangat kuat dalam kehidupan sehari-hari mereka.

Larry sebenarnya adalah seorang pria dengan kehidupan normal, hingga pada suatu hari, Hashem (Tuhan – dalam bahasa Yahudi) memutuskan untuk menguji Larry dengan beberapa cobaan sekaligus. Pertama, ia harus menghadapi Clive (David Kang), salah satu mahasiswanya yang berasal dari Korea Selatan, yang gagal dalam salah satu mata kuliahnya dan mencoba untuk menyogoknya. Kedua, ia harus menghadapi istrinya, Judith (Sari Wagner Lennick), yang meminta bercerai dengannya agar ia dapat menikah dengan salah seorang sahabat mereka, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed).

Dua masalah tersebut masih dilengkapi dengan permasalahan yang ia hadapi dengan adiknya, Arthur (Richard Kind), yang tinggal bersama keluarganya dan sepertinya menjadi beban bagi mereka, khususnya bagi puterinya, Sarah (Jessica McManus). Dan terakhir adalah permasalahan putranya, Danny (Aaron Wolff), yang sebentar lagi akan dibuatkan bar mitzvah (pesta relijius penanda kedewasaan seorang anak laki-laki bagi kaum Yahudi) namun memiliki kegemaran untuk menghisap marijuana. Merasa kebingungan menghadapai deretan-deretan masalah tersebut, atas saran istrinya, Larry menemui tiga orang rabbi (pendeta Yahudi) untuk meminta saran kepada mereka, yang sepertinya justru malah tidak menyelesaikan masalah, dan malah menambah kerumitan masalah-masalah tersebut.

Well… jika Anda telah mengenal Coen Brothers lewa film-film mereka seperti Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou, dan The Big Lebowski, maka Anda mungkin telah mengenal keanehan jalan cerita yang ditawarkan oleh Coen Brothers di film ini. Namun, jika Anda baru mengenal mereka lewat karya-karya terakhir mereka, maka mungkin Anda akan mengalami sedikit masalah untuk mencerna film ini.

A Serious Man sepertinya adalah sebuah usaha dari Coen Brothers untuk membuat film bagi mereka sendiri, lepas dari sisi komersial dan sama sekali tidak memperdulikan selera pasar maupun pengharapan para penonton mereka. Seperti yang diucapkan Coen Brothers, A Serious Man adalah sebuah film yang diinspirasi dari kehidupan pribadi mereka sebagai kaum Yahudi dan tinggal di lingkungan dimana pengaruh kebudayaan Yahudi masih sangat lekat. Hasilnya, film ini dipenuhi oleh berbagai unsur budaya Yahudi, termasuk penggunaan bahasa Yahudi di beberapa adegan, yang mungkin akan sedikit membingungkan para penontonnya.

Walau akan sulit dicerna oleh beberapa orang dengan cara penyampaian yang dipilih Coen Brothers, namun sebenarnya A Serious Man memiliki plot yang cukup universal. Seorang pria yang berusaha untuk memahami apa yang salah pada kehidupannya dengan menghubungkan jiwa spiritual pria tersebut dengan hubungan pribadinya bersama orang-orang yang tinggal di sekitarnya. Coen Brothers juga dengan pintar menenyelipkan kisah pencarian jati diri dan usaha untuk mengerti mengenai dunia dan Tuhan lewat pandangan kaum Yahudi lewat film ini. Disampaikan dengan tata pandang kaum tertentu, namun Coen Brothers dapat membuat seluruh penonton film menempatkan diri mereka dalam jalan kisah film ini dan menjadikan jalan cerita A Serious Man dapat dinikmati secara universal.

Jajaran pemeran yang dipilih oleh Coen Brothers, walaupun tak satupun yang dikenali, namun memiliki kualitas komikal yang cukup mumpuni untuk membuat film ini terlihat sangat meyakinkan dari sisi departemen aktingnya. Coen Brothers juga menggunakan orang-orang yang sama seperti di film-film mereka sebelumnya untuk melengkapi tata taknis film ini. Roger Deakins di sinematografi dan Carter Burwell di tata suara. Dan mereka memberikan hasil yang cukup memuaskan untuk A Serious Man secara keseluruhan.

A Serious Man sekali lagi membuktikan kejeniusan luar biasa dari Coen Brothers. Dari penulisan naskah yang unik dan memiliki pesan tersembunyi yang cukup dalam, hingga cara mereka untuk menyampaikan kisah tersebut yang benar-benar akan membuat para penonton mereka sedikit mengerutkan kening mereka. A Serious Man, seperti halnya karya-karya luar biasa Coen Brothers lainnya, memang bukan ditujukan untuk semua orang. Namun jika Anda benar-benar mampu mengikuti jalan ceritanya, bkan tidak mungkin film ini akan menjadi salah satu film komedi favorit Anda sepanjang tahun lalu.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

“Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” ~ Rashi

…And so begins the Coen Brothers’ newest fable which many have called their most personal to date. This isn’t strictly a movie review, but just to get all that out of the way — It’s absolutely fantastic. So much depth of story, character, and theme is here that you might as well be reading a truly great novel. Go watch it now. In the meantime, I promise I won’t spoil anything for you…

The film surrounds Larry Gopnick, a Jewish physics professor and husband/father living in 1967 Minnesota. As we enter the picture, everything is starting to unravel for him. His wife is leaving him for another man, he’s up for tenure but someone is sending anonymous letters to the board in his disfavor, his son seemingly cares nothing about his Jewish background, his live-in brother is a constant cause of problems, the neighbor to the left of him is slowly encroaching upon his property, while the neighbor on the right of him comes in the form of a seductress of sorts. As all his problems begin to snowball, he begins to wonder where God is and why God is doing all this to him.

In short, this film is basically a re-telling of the Book of Job. In fact, in many ways, it’s almost impossible to truly “get” this movie without knowing your Old Testament. Along with the obvious allusions to Job, we also find shades of King David, as Larry looks on from his rooftop into his neighbors back yard as she sunbathes. Almost every commandment is broken here by someone and always accompanied by consequences.

Of course, the theme of the entire film is how one responds to the terrible things in life. The Coens have always loved delving into the chaos of everyday life, the times in life where there is seemingly no order. They’ve rarely given an answer to combat these times until now. Of course, in classic Coen fashion, even the answer they give is a little ambiguous. Like No Country for Old Men, this movie ends on a note of abruptness which forces the viewer to find their own meaning, whether it be positive or negative.

As a Christian, I found the film saying one key answer to the low-points in life are the stories and traditions that got us there. When it comes to story and tradition, what better way to convey an importance of it than to have your main character be Jewish? There is a small instance in the movie which presents a major truth about Larry. His son has subscribed to Columbia House records behind his back and has gotten a call from them wanting payment. The Columbia House representative informs Larry that the album, Abraxas by Santana, was sent to him, but Larry continually denies it. He yells into the phone, “I did not order Abraxas, I do not want Abraxas, I will not listen to Abraxas!” Abraxas is a Gnostic term for God, most importantly, a name for God that denotes the encompassing of all things and all events, “good” or “bad.” In essence, Larry is constantly rejecting his own story throughout the entire film, whether he realizes it or not.

At an earlier point in the film, Larry is having a discussion with a disgruntled student who doesn’t understand the need for math in physics. Larry explains that the math is the most important aspect of physics, because it’s what gets us to the answer. Even though, by his own admission, we don’t often know what the answer even truly means. Larry needs to take his own advice in his life. The “math” of the Torah and the history and stories of his tradition are constantly ignored by him. He calls himself a man who does good, but this isn’t really the case. He is certainly not a man who does evil. But, truly he’s just a man who doesn’t do anything. He’s tried his best to glide through life not rocking any boats or taking any chances. He is living life the opposite of the fullest. Along with the rejection of his heritage, he is a man with nothing of spiritual substance.

I will not ruin the end for you. But, I will warn you. You’re most likely going to throw your hands up and say, “What the hell?!” If you hated the ending to No Country for Old Men, you will probably hate this one even more. But, trust me. The Coens are making a point with that final image. You just have to challenge yourself to think about it. Like I said, I don’t want to ruin it, but I will give you some hints in understanding the point of it all. First, pay very close attention to the ten-minute prologue which could be an entirely different movie in it’s own right. It has nothing to do with the events in the rest of the story, other than thematically. Second, go read Job. Seriously. I highly recommend reading Job before seeing this film, you’ll get the most out of both works of art. And especially the final shot of the film is closely tied to a very important event in Job.

I truly encourage everyone to go see this wonderful little parable. It’s priceless when a film not only encourages, but demands you to think for yourself, which in turn tells you a little something about yourself. And we can all use some time pondering our lives and our stories amongst all the chaos in this world.

I went into this film expecting something great from the Coen’s, along the lines of Barton Fink. I can’t believe I actually sat through this garbage. It was filmed well and acted well. It had a cool poster and trailer. The movie on the other hand is one of the worst I have ever seen. Nothing progresses, it’s not funny in any way, and WTF is with the ending. I can only hope that the ____ kills everybody involved with the creation of this “masterpiece.” I really hated every character in the film. This is the biggest disappointment of the year. I have been told that it is based off the Book of Job. That may be but that does not make it good. I really wish someone could have said no to the Coen’s on this one.

Life is a wall built with bricks made of moments, struggles, problems, ideas; everything that makes up human existence, but a certain moment arrives when bad decisions or simple circumstances make that wall crush down our little orb, leaving us trapped under the rubble of what was once our future with little to do but to expect the final hour.

This bleak determinist vision seems to be the one of Larry Gopnik, the protagonist of the Coen brothers’ most recent film, A Serious Man. The story of this Jewish physics professor and his selfish dependent family is the perfect definition of a crisis of faith. As absolutely everything around Larry becomes a nightmarish occurrence, his fatalistic views on life, based on his Jewish beliefs, lead him to think that only God, or one of His emissaries the rabbis could have an answer to his many problems, whether they be his wife’s lover moving into his house; his brother’s run-ins with the law, and his promotion becoming increasingly threatened by anonymous diatribes while he deals with a student that intends to bribe him.

Although the film is wildly funny unless you dislike very dark humor, it is also very dramatic, real, moving, and to some, quite depressing since it doesn’t offer answers to Larry’s plea for divine wisdom, but rather makes the audience wonder why not looking for the solutions himself instead of trusting his whole life story to religious men who make faith look more like a superstition than a path to divinity.

Larry clearly wants to improve his situation, but his conscience is heavily influenced by the folk tale nature of religion, so while his dreams tend to offer a sight of what could be his way out of his miserable state, they always end waking him up covered in sweat, far more nervous than he was when he went to sleep. In many cultures, dreams are considered visions of the future, sessions of enlightenment which, in the case of Larry, only disturb him more and more but his faith and hopefulness keep him from entirely cracking up.

This theme of the folk superstition that religion can get to represent when manipulated is explored at the beginning of the film, when a folk tale is told in order to set the tone, asking the audience to question the decisions Larry makes and the advice he is given, while finding truth in the unexpected and simple philosophical view that the mysterious and Intolerable Cruelty-referential Marshak shares with Larry’s son, Danny, after his Bar Mitzvah. In the end, the film seems to suggest that no matter how much a man wants to find God, his quest will only be completed when he finds divinity itself, but in the meantime, everything is just the result of circumstances and the inaction that comes from the expectations created by faith; the more time Larry devotes to finding a religious answer, the more frustrated he becomes and the bigger his problems get.

Larry’s search for the purpose of his sudden misery certainly reminds of existential quests such as the ones in Hannah and Her Sisters or even The Seventh Seal, but what sets this film apart from every Man- in-the-quest-for-answers-from-God kind of story is its directors’ amazing ability to blend genders and make the audience laugh at some of the cruelest situations a normal man could bear. The Coen brothers even go as far as mocking the Jewish stereotypes that appear in most sitcoms and parodies in order to create an environment that results hilarious to the audiences, and particularly to deadpan comedy fans.

The cinematography is wonderful and so is the production design which makes every single corner seem like a terrifying place full of questions and scornful, exclusive knowledge, such as a library-like room where a meeting between Larry and his lawyers takes place.

The acting is overall typically Coen style, but the whole weight of the film is carried by Michael Stuhlbarg, whose expression seems to remain unchanged no matter how many pieces of his life fall like rocks on his head, but if watched closely, like in a frame by frame comparison, his sadness and despair show right away from the start and even more when he is reaching the conclusion of the film.

With not much more praise to be said about this film that comes very close to perfection and that establishes the Coen brothers as the auteurs they have striven to become, A Serious Man is a masterpiece that may not be appreciated by everyone and particularly not by those who dislike the Coens’ most inconclusive or simply put, weird films, but will be highly rewarding to anyone who enjoys a film loaded with wisdom while apparently saying nothing. It’s an experience of loud muteness, just like a pop song.

who would’ve thought that a rabbi quoting a lyrics from jefferson airplane’s somebody to love would be such a hilarious occurrence? the coen brothers has hit the jackpot. again.

with a serious man, the coens are back to make something that their a master for. like the big lebowski before it, a serious man is a film with the perfect combination of bleak and witty comedy, touching drama (yes, the big lebowski has its own touch of drama, mind you), original and one-of-a-kind script, and a collection of brilliant subplots. and the way they mashed one subplot to the others are pitch perfect.

the actings are remarkable in this film, especially michael stuhlbarg who is perfect as a jew who has never ending problems, from the house’s antenna to bribery, from marriage problem to his brother’s problem. he has the combined looks of woody allen’s jewness and neuroticism; and joaquin phoenix’s film star persona. michael stuhlbarg is the perfect man for the character. i almost think that it was destiny. the kid who acted as his son also acted well in the film. the weed smoking scenes, the bar mitzvah scene, the chasing scenes; it was all acted pretty well by the kid.

all in all, a serious man is one of the best films, if not the best, in the year 2009. i will be completely furious if the oscar didn’t nominate this film in the best picture and the best original screenplay category, which i think they won’t. and in my opinion, a serious man is the coen brothers’ best film since the big lebowski and also their funniest work yet. go see this one. now.

I’ll admit from the start that I don’t quite know how to write about Joel and Ethan Coen’s new film A Serious Man, but I’ll begin with a few things I know for sure. I know that this is a hysterically funny movie and that it made me laugh so hard that my stomach started to ache. I know that it is very personal on the part of the filmmakers and that it is perfectly executed for just that reason. I’m confident that it achieves a polished completeness and finality that many directors only dream of. But do I understand it? I wish.

Here’s the rundown: life is unraveling for physics professor and generally good man Larry Gopnik. His wife Judith is having an affair with an aloof family friend and wants a divorce. His brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is emotionally and physically incapable of living alone and spends his nights in Larry’s living room. The Gopnik children, Danny and Sarah, are pilfering cash from their father’s wallet to buy pot and save up for a nose job. There’s an anonymous person writing nasty letters to the university to tarnish Larry’s good reputation and destroy his chances at tenure. An unhappy graduate student is attempting to bribe him for a better math grade with an envelope of large bills. Distraught and terribly confused, Larry sets out on a quest to find some balance to the chaos. A devout Jew, he’s advised by his friends to talk to the Rabbi. He consults three and they all have different non-answers. Temptations arise, questions go unanswered, doors get slammed in his face, and Larry is confronted with many a harrowing choice, each one compounding the mystery of the Coen brothers’ latest existential riddle.

The Coens know how to harvest the hilarity out of life’s absurdity and A Serious Man is a movie for people who can laugh at exaggerated characters put in situations that easily reach a level of gleefully deranged poeticism. Here we have messages written on the back of people’s teeth, a Rabbi who quotes Jefferson Airplane, and a perpetually drained cyst all working to prove yet again that these filmmakers specialize in their own brand of niche comedy.

Newcomer Michael Stuhlbarg imbues Larry Gopnik with a jittery, painful unease that makes his strife even more relatable. His character shares many similarities to William H. Macy’s character in Fargo, but whereas Jerry Lundegaard caved to criminal activity under the crushing weight of self-pity, Larry Gopnik chooses to fight it out and make the most of his ability to choose. It’s a delicate balance and Stuhlbarg pulls it off beautifully.

In typical Coen fashion, the supporting characters nearly steal the show, particularly Fred Melamed who plays Sy Ableman, the agonizingly serious and overbearing family friend who has stolen the heart of Larry’s wife. Sy Ableman is the kind of friend who thinks it advantageous to uncork a Bordeaux and have a polite chat with Larry about how his marriage should end. His throbbing, earnest insistence is completely riotous as he suggests that Larry move out of the house to a local motel called the Jolly Roger. “Larry, Larry, Larry,” he intones, “I think, really, the Jolly Roger is the best course of action. It has a pool.”

The story is set in the 1960s and lensed impeccably in sharp focus by veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins. Nothing is amiss in this film and each dramatic and comedic note is pitch-perfect. The characters in the absurd world of A Serious Man fit the film’s structure like puzzle pieces.
Still, when we step back to view the whole puzzle, it’s hard to be sure what exactly it is. If you took one piece away, the whole structure would fall, but like any truly great piece of art, multiple questions are necessary to interpret why everything fits.

For example: Why does Larry Gopnik suffer so much? Is it as a result of something he’s done? Does he need to make better choices? What does it mean to be a good man? Could Larry ever achieve it? Is it possible for anyone to be truly good? What can we make of the film’s spare hopeful moments, including a startling intrusion of grace just before the final act? Are these tiny shreds of common grace sufficient to make life worth living? And how does that darned Jewish fable at the beginning of the film relate to the rest of the story?

Much has been said of how A Serious Man is a retelling of the Biblical story of Job, that pitiable saint put to the test by the devil to see if he would deny God. Nearly drowned in raging waters of uncertainty, Job had the courage to say of God, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.” Whether you think this wise or foolish, the Coens appear to have a more secular course of action in mind.

The film begins with a proverb from Rashi: “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” Is this the blanket answer to all the questions of A Serious Man? I think the auteurs behind it would say yes – and even though it seems like a terribly simplistic retort, they should be applauded for finding a strangely funny, very dark, and surprisingly human way to announce it.

All I can say is that the Coens may be my favorite filmmakers these days. So much of what they make is so intellectually stimulating and fun to watch that I can’t call them anything less than my favorites. A Serious Man, while being thoroughly hilarious, is, in my opinion, darker than anything that has come before for the Coens (including No Country For Old Men). The themes of a higher being either testing or torturing you, alongside the question of blind faith in Hashem without ever getting an answer to anything, were bleak and disturbing in ways that no other Coen movie has come close to. Michael Stuhlbarg owns this film. His delivery, mannerisms and attitude are all in perfect sync with the world around his character and the man deserves a nod for his performance. The supporting cast of characters all serve their respective purposes quite well, but that’s to be expected from the Coens. They have a real knack for getting the most out of their supporting cast, even with relatively unknown talents dominating most of the bill. I find that with all Coen movies, the immediate ending always seems to leave a lot of loose ends to tie up, that is until you take a step back and really examine the film as a whole. Quite simply, if you love their style, the Coen brothers are the most consistent filmmakers working today, and while it’s being sadly overlooked now I do believe that this film will only gain fans with time.

Murphy’s Law: given enough time, an event which is possible will almost certainly take place (what can go wrong will go wrong)

Uncertainty Principle: it is impossible to determine simultaneously both the position and velocity of an electron (we can’t ever determine exactly what is going on)

These are the underlying principles of this film. They govern our lives whether we like it or not, because we live in a universe of matter and probability. Probable events continue all around us without our appreciation. Many of these are beneficial. Our heart is likely to beat again. Our lovers are likely to love us again. The gas pedal is likely to move us forward again. However, when the likelihood of these events not occurring chimes in, it is perceived as bad. We should appreciated the fact that thee things happen at all, and that we are incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to observe and interact with them.

It is all about perspective—“It’s the parking lot Larry!”—the relevance of these musings reinforced by the profound depiction of self and environmental awareness that is a hallmark of Marijuana use. However, as proven at Larry’s son’s Bar Mitzvah, this hyper-awareness can limit our ability to engage and increase our paranoia.

Amidst the cacophony of calamities that Larry is faced with, he needs to take heed of his own advice to his brother and become the instigator of change in his life, he cannot wait for divine intervention.

His dreams provide perfect solutions to many of his problems:
Enjoy his sexual liberation (read: fuck his neighbour)
-Give his brother a better life (away from his own)
-Relish in what he understands-“The Uncertainty Principle. It proves we can’t ever really know what’s going on. So it shouldn’t bother you. Not being able to figure anything out”—not religious rhetoric.

Alas, all of these dreams end in tragedy (coffin, dead brother, assault). A reflection of the fact that Larry is immobilised by his fear of the worst. Yes, the worst can happen, and given enough time it will. But when it does happen, we don’t have to feel that the universe is frowning on us in diastase. In fact, a lot of the time the worst has already happened, and we are just becoming aware of its occurrence. E.g. a slowly fading love between partners or a growing tumour. A new perspective each day is a sure cure for these ails.

Other moments were lovely in their execution.
-Larry just wanting somebody to love, needing somebody to love.
-Canada being the port of call for a Jew who has a life akin to Auschwitz (a promised place of exile by the Nazi’s).
-The juxtaposition of success and calamity in the closing scene, Larrys tenure/X-ray results and the drug dealer staring blindly at the coming destruction. Perhaps personal gain should be frowned upon?

All in all, this film make you anxious before (trailer), during and after. But upon reflection, it is an incredibly satisfying, visually stunning, philosophical and all-round quality film.

I’m yet to see a Coen film as thought provoking as this. This film’s final shot seems to be embedded into my mind. I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m sure the ending – and the whole film, really – will generate a lot of discussion. I look forward to seeing this again to see if I understand any more of it on a re watch. This is a beautiful film. The shots are beautifully composed, the sets/locations are perfect and Roger Deakins quality work is evident here. Also the characters are well written and played by a perfect cast. All their choices were spot on. The Coens never fail to shock me. This film has unexpected moments and is simply a joy to watch. One of the years best films.

One of the most challenging and perplexing films I’ve seen in a while. Don’t get me wrong, its still a great film and a worthy addition to the Coen canon. But I can’t get over the nagging feeling that something was missing. There’s that great Coen ability to tread the line between horror and comedy and a superb lead perfomance from Michael Sthulberg as the put upon Larry. Yet as it reaches its ambigous, bleak and arrupt finale I couldn’t help but feel like Larry, the answers I were seeking remained out of reach. Maybe that’s the the point though. A second watch is defaintly in order…

The Coen brothers have created THE NEW FIDDLER ON THE ROOF! Here are the reasons I say that: first, the trailer in its own way presents a musical composition to us; second, the opening scene presents roughly the same time period and place; third, the story takes place in an almost exclusively Jewish community; fourth, the main character Larry is dealing with comparable family troubles and trying to find answers from God; and fifth, look at the poster.

Now the Jefferson Airplane song Somebody to Love figures prominently into the movie too as does ceremonial Hebrew music for Larry’s son’s bar mitzvah. The opening Yiddish scene is darkly humorous and I suppose it is there to suggest the ancestors of the Gopniks may have caused a curse on the family. I have heard that the movie portrays a very authentic Jewish community especially in the way the characters speak and interact. Professor Larry Gopnik lives in America in the 1960’s, so he only has two children, a son and a daughter, but his family and professional troubles turn his life on its head with divorce, marijuana, gambling, bribes, and seeking tenure. Wishing he were a rich man hasn’t changed though! Being an educated man from the 20th century means Larry doesn’t have conversations with God in the same way. He seeks three rabbis as links between him and God because the religious institution is really the only connection to tradition anymore, and being a mathematics/physics professor he is more versed in the Uncertainty Principle. Larry does actually venture up on his roof too, but not to fiddle. Well, wait… yes, by another definition of the word fiddle, Larry Gopnik is a Fiddler on the Roof. He tries to adjust the TV antenna for a show his son likes to watch and then he notices he can see his hot neighbor sunbathing nude.

Sy Ableman is Larry’s Lazar Wolf, but as with every other parallel to the old musical, there is a twist. Sy is the one described as a serious man and Larry through all his questioning and trying to fix his life crisis wants to be a serious man too. The cast is awesome! I think the Coen brothers have mixed tragic troubling moments with darkly humorous moments excellently. Like in No Country for Old Men, you may think the plot is being wrapped up all nice and neat, but then the story continues briefly and leaves you realistically (in a way fatalistically) hanging. So well constructed! I loved it!

This pretty much sums up how I felt about it:

“A Serious Man is the Coens’ true follow-up to their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men – a Jewish take on the question of cosmic injustice,” argues David Edelstein. “As in No Country, no one sees the entire picture – except, perhaps, the Almighty, who is, if He exists, a crueler jokester than even the makers of Blood Simple and Burn After Reading. The vision is mordant and absurdist – but not nihilistic. The Coens open with a quote from Rashi: ‘Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.’ The lesson of Larry Gopnik is how to lose gracefully.”

I’ve figured out by now that a Coen Bros. movie is one of their very best when I watch it and I’m not sure how I feel afterward. It’s the feeling I got with BARTON FINK, MILLER’S CROSSING, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, and now, A SERIOUS MAN. The Coens remain sardonic and misanthropic here, and while their …attitude could be described as such, the religious themes present in this movie seem to put things into perspective. It’s a movie that will leave audiences scratching their heads, but the Coens are always at their most poignant when you can’t absorb everything a film of their has to offer immediately. Their best work sinks and stays in your head, and that’s what A SERIOUS MAN does.

A seriously perplexing cipher, a haunting biblical allegory, a fable chronicling man’s greatest question: what does IT mean, and why does IT happen? – A Serious Man is a brilliantly mysterious curio, mischievously funny and thought-provoking. The Coens tackle the apotheosis of existential queries with unwavering precision and darkly humorous observation, setting the film up with an odd Yiddish myth and ending it with an apocalyptic vision that challenges perception, perspective, and the paradoxes of choice vs. fate and action vs. inaction. But amongst all these cosmic quandaries is still a more personal question: what does it mean to be a man, and how is such a thing measured? Is it by initiation, religious ritual, a Bar Mitzvah? Does it ever happen? Are we even ready to live simple, moral lives, or are we too entangled in our own consciousnesses to even live? Distilling it down to its roots, man was created unique and free-thinking, but was broken down by the very things that made him human. Such is the basis of the Coens’ yin-yang, push and pull universe, wherein to live is to compromise, to accept your success is to welcome its proportionate amount of calamity. On some days, the calamity might be stronger than the success; but the mystery of living is not knowing which comes next.

Joel & Ethan Coen have scored another masterpiece with this subtly surreal character study. The deliriously banal world of 1960s Jewish Mid-Western suburbia comes to life through exceptional character performances (Michael Stuhlbarg, in particular, is going to be a name to watch), fascinating production design, and the Coen’s patented offbeat dark humor. It’s certainly not their most accessible film, as it brilliantly shucks mainstream storytelling conventions – many will no doubt be maddened by the ceaseless ambiguity, particularly the bizarre but unforgettable final scene. But those who appreciate the Coen Brothers’ hilariously bleak perspective will not be disappointed.